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SALT LAKE CITY — The state's top two archaeologists and its lone physical anthropologist were laid off Tuesday amid departmental restructuring driven by budget cuts, officials said.
The positions of state archaeologist Kevin Jones, assistant state archeologist Ron Rood and physical anthropologist Derinna Kopp were eliminated Tuesday morning and will be consolidated into a single position, said Michael Hansen, acting director of Utah's Department of Community and Culture.
The move was necessitated by budget cuts approved earlier this year by the Utah Legislature, Hansen said. Consolidating the three positions into one will save the department a little more than $154,000 in the 2011-12 fiscal year, he said.
Hansen said the three dismissed employees had known changes were coming to the antiquities program for at least two months.
"We were upfront about this," he said.
Jones, Rood and Kopp will be paid through July 31 — one month into the next budget cycle, Hansen said.
"We thought that it was the most professional thing to do and what we could afford to do with the resources we have," he said.
Neither Jones, Rood nor Kopp could be reached for comment Tuesday.
When news of the layoffs spread to the local archaeological community, some questioned in email and online postings whether the actions had anything to do with the controversial Utah Transit Authority FrontRunner stop near a 3,000-year-old Indian archeological site in Draper. Jones and Rood have been passionate in their support for preserving the site.
But Hansen said the dispute had nothing to do with the layoffs.
"I know that accusation has been thrown out there, but it is completely false," he said.
Hansen said decisions about the layoffs were made within the Department of Community and Culture and that no lawmaker or outside state agency played any role in them.
Coincidentally, the layoffs took place on the same day that Gov. Gary Herbert named Shirlee Silversmith as the state's new director of Indian Affairs within the Department of Community and Culture.
Silversmith replaces Forrest Cuch, who was fired by Gov. Herbert in February. Cuch was a vocal opponent of UTA's plans to build the Draper FrontRunner stop at the archeological site.
A spokeswoman for Herbert at that time said Cuch's firing had nothing to do with the UTA dispute.
Hansen said the Department of Community and Culture this week will begin advertising for a forensic scientist to fill the new consolidated position.
Email:jpage@ksl.com
